The daelkyr known as Virulence has put together a network of followers, spies, and informants throughout all of Eberron. As with any wide-ranging organization, especially one headed by a being of purely insane evil, rebellions and insurrections are an ever-present threat. This is the case with a lair of skum: once dedicated to Virulence, they are now acting of their own volition. Their defection from the daelkyr’s forces does not mean they are trustworthy or good; in fact, they now pose an even larger threat than before, as they hold prisoner Zekeriff “Zeke” Brithlestone, the one-time leader of Crimson Codex operations on Xen’drik. Whereas Virulence and his lieutenants wanted to keep Zeke alive to extract from him all the relevant information they could concerning Crimson Codex operations and the draconic Prophecy, the skum are content to question him once and then eat him. Virulence is no longer interested in Zeke, and he is displeased with the skum, so he decides to reveal Zeke’s location. He assumes the Crimson Codex can then deal with his skum problem.

At the same time, the division within the Crimson Codex forces continues to widen. Candle, the new director of the Codex forces on Xen’drik, is placed into power and tasked with putting the affairs of the organization into order as quickly as possible. The renewed purpose of the Codex brings some members who wavered back into the fold, but it also highlights and emboldens the traitors who wished to use Codex resources simply to bolster their own powers. The events of this adventure play out against the backdrop of the Crimson Codex putting internal affairs into order while mounting a mission to rescue Zeke.